The Fox's Entourage and the Dinner Invitation
by I He She
Summary: When Ahri gets invited to Cho'Gath's estate for dinner, she decides to bring a few people with her. She departs, together with Thresh, Orianna, Nami and Annie. Their sojourn, however, will be far from relaxing. As they get to know each other better, new bonds between them may form and be strengthened, or old ones may be weakened and shatter. Twisted, unhealthy, precious bonds.
1. Departure

**Set after "The Warden and the Ticking Seed".  
**

 **Actual genres would be along the lines of romance, humor, horror, spiritual I guess. Can't add more than two to the tags though.**

* * *

 **Departure**

Ahri walked down the stairs and to the entrance. Someone had knocked, but she wasn't expecting anyone. Well, not at that hour. She had planned to meet with Thresh later that evening, but it was still early in the afternoon. Yawning since her nap had been interrupted, she grabbed the handle and opened the door. Outside was... a small, purple creature, around the size of a large cat. It somewhat resembled a bug, though only vaguely, had four pointed legs -each ending with a spike rather than an actual foot or paw- and three large, yellow eyes. It was holding something in its mouth. A letter.

Ahri kneeled down and took the letter, closed with a purple and oddly large wax seal, and opened it. The message was rather short. And, it was the one she had been waiting for since a couple of weeks. She had finally been invited for dinner, the following week. Even better, he clearly said she could bring a few people with her, as long as Kassadin wasn't one of them. Ahri then walked back inside -followed by the voidling-, closed the door, put the letter back inside its envelope, folded it and placed it on top of the closest piece of furniture. Then she kneeled down and took the voidling, which had been staring at her with an high-level poker face for the whole time, in her arms as if it were a cat.

"Now then, who to drag along?" she wondered as she walked in circles, her tails flailings behind her. The voidling seemed to enjoy being petted and kept silent.

Three or four people, five at most. Any more and she would have probably had to warn him about there being more guests than expected, aside from bringing too many people being unpolite. After a while, she decided. And she also found a systemation for the voidling. The letter said it was a gift, but she didn't fell the need of a pet.

* * *

Things had been rather... normal for Thresh since he had come back from Piltover, around ten days ago. He had somehow managed to avoid any meeting between Orianna and Ahri, mainly because he didn't want that fox to influence his new toy in any way. On the other hand, Orianna's development hadn't progressed much. She had apparently never been outside of that theatre for long periods of times, and her knowledge of the world -and her common sense as well- were incredibly lacking. And while teaching her some of the extremely basic things had proved to be actually rather entertaining, that still wasn't what he had planned to do.

He was sitting on an old wooden chair, inside an abandoned house, the original owner harvested a long time ago. Orianna was outside. She seemed to be curious about Ionia's forests and wildlife, but Thresh got the feeling that her interest was fake. That wouldn't be the first time he saw her doing something for no other reason than imitating a normal living person, and with little success. He should have fixed that attitude, but not at that moment. He was staring -and being stared at by- the Ball. He had yet to figure out what its link with Orianna was exactly. He had a few ideas about that, but none had been neither confirmed nor disproved. After a few minutes he looked outside, then stood up and walked out. Orianna was nearby, and it took him less than five minutes to find her. Actually, all he had to do was follow the ethereal line linking her and the Ball together.

"Orianna"

She moved her gaze from a small bird resting on a tree to Thresh.

"I have a few things to do, I probably will not come back before morning. A sort of hassle, but one I have to put up with. Do not wander too far from the house while I am away"

She stared at him for a few moments, then nodded.

"I' _l_ L B _e a_ go _O_ D g _Ir_ L" she said before turning around. The bird was gone. Within the Ball, something clicked rather loudly.

Thresh walked away, sighing as he headed to Ahri's house. He was getting tired of that. Or maybe he had gotten tired already and simply had yet to realize that.

* * *

What he found was... unexpected. The door wasn't locked, but that was rather normal. What surprised him was that Ahri was preparing her luggages -four of them- as if she had to leave for a rather long journey.

"... going somewhere?" he asked.

"Yes" she replied as she took a few clothes from a wardrobe and tried to fit them inside a suitcase "I've been invited for dinner, and since it's pretty far I'm packing some stuff"

"Far seems like an understatement" he said as he looked at the suitcases. If luck was on his side, their "session" had just been canceled "Where are you going this time?"

"Shurima. Actually, the place is closer to the borders than it is to the capital, but still Shurima"

"Well, have fun" he said as he turned around to walk away.

"Oh, we will"

He froze.

"... we?"

"I was planning on bringing a few people along. Of course, you are one of said people"

"And why would I be one of them?"

"Why wouldn't you be?" she replied as she closed one of the luggages.

He didn't like it when people did other things while talking with him. Ahri was doing that exactly because she knew, and Thresh was well aware of that. They stared at each other for a few moments, in silence. Then he spoke.

"Listen, fox. This thing has gone on for long enough. I am getting tired of this... relationship of ours, or whatever this thing between us is. You were rather useful from time to time, and it was entertaining every now and then, but I am tired of being treated like one of your belongings"

Ahri didn't reply at first. Her tails were standing almost still, her eyes locked on his. Then, a smile appeared on her face.

"One last time" she said "Come to Shurima and bear with me this last time. Before we come back I'll give you a reason not to leave me. If I can't convince you before then, I'll never bother you again"

"... why would I believe that?"

Ahri laughed softly.

"Don't you trust me?" she asked playfully as she kept packing her stuff.

"No sane person would trust you" he replied as he walked up to her "But then again, sanity is not one of my strong points. However" he said as he grabbed her arm, his phalanxes digging into her skin and flesh, blood quiclky pouring from the wounds "If you fail to give me a valid reason, I will go through all the troubles of the case and finally harvest you"

Ignoring the pain, Ahri smiled. "Finally", he said. She was... happy that he had used that word. In a certain way. Then, her arm caught fire, and a blue flame engulfed Thresh's arm, from the fingertips to the elbow. Just like she was doing with his grasp, he pretended the fire wasn't hurting him at all.

"What makes you think you can harvest me?"

"What makes you think I cannot?"

They stood there like that for a few seconds, staring at each other. He, into her eyes which had temporarily turned slightly purple. She, inside the empty eye sockets of his skull. Then, Ahri took his sickle with her free arm with a relaxed movement of her hand and brought it up, close to her own face. She placed the tip of the blade on her forehead, and... ran it down her face, with enough force to make blood pour from the wound but not enough to cause any real harm. She moved the blade from the middle of her forehead to her right cheek, making sure not to injure her eye. Thresh was amazed at how close to her own eye she could get with the blade without cutting it. Then, she brought the scythe back up and drew another red line on her face, following the same pattern as before.

An alluring sight. Ahri was probably the only person in Ionia who would do something like that only to tease Thresh. The sight of her own fresh blood on her face was indeed alluring, stirring up his cruel tendencies. As she kept doing that, the flames engulfing their arms grew a bit stronger. His grip tightened, his fingers digging deepter into her skin. Not really to hurt her, but rather to keep himself calm. Responding to that would have meant playing her game. In a few minutes, seven cuts had been carved on Ahri's face. The flow of blood hard caused her to close her right eye. Then, she stopped and lowered the sickle.

"We have a deal?" she asked.

"... we have a deal"

Thresh pulled his hand away as the flames died down. Ahri handed him his scythe, and he took it with his scorched arm. He looked at it. Those flames hadn't caused him any permanent damage, but the burns they caused were nothing to laugh about. It would have probably taken him at least a week to completely recover. Doing anything which required precision with that hand was most likely inadvisable for the following days. As for Ahri, she placed two fingers on one of the small holes on her arm, her expression twitching slightly as she did so, to check exactly how bad the wound was. As for the ones on her face, she seemed not to pay them much attention, though they were incredibly eye-catching. Her arm would have probably taken a while to recover too, given how much strenght Thresh had put into his grasp. And, while Ahri healed faster than a normal person, recovering from wounds inflicted by Thresh took longer than normal.

Thresh was... a bit happy, and a bit annoyed. He didn't respond to her provocation, and she was also the one who proposed to stop first. He won that confrontation. On the other hand, he had agreed to go to Shurima with her. Just like him, Ahri was partially happy and partially displeased.

"Who are the others you are planning to bring along?" he asked as he contemplated her wounded body.

"Well, not many. Just Annie and... Nami? Probably"

"Annie is in Ionia? And why would you bring those two along? Actually, no, I do not want to know. Just... do the parents of Annie know? They are among the last persons on Runeterra I want to make enemies out of. And I thought Nami had no intention of seeing you again after... you know"

"Don't worry, I'll take care of everyting" she replied as she started to seach for something, probably a few bandages.

"If you say so. Then... I have someone to bring along too"

Ahri's hears twitched.

"Oh my, this is really unexpected. Who is that?"

"You will meet her when we depart"

"Her?" she askesd, a mischievous smile on her face.

He didn't really like the idea of Orianna and Ahri meeting. But the thought of leaving the mechanical girl behind was something he liked even less. To avoid further questions, he asked her where to meet and when for the departure then walked away through the walls, to reach the door a bit faster.

* * *

When Thresh came back -much earlier than expected- he found Orianna in front of the abandoned house. She was sitting on top of the Ball, which was floating slightly closer to the ground than usual. There was a small bird in her hands. A dead bird. She had cut its chest open and was taking pieces out of its ribcage, her face lacking any expression. Wjocj was normal for her. When she raised her head to look at Thresh she had just grabbed the small animal's heart.

"Orianna, do you have any problems with the sand? It does not get in your gears or anything like that, I hope"

Orianna tried to mimic what was probably supposed to be a startled expression.

"N _o_ , _wE_ h _Av_ E n _oT_. _W_ hY d _o_ YO _u_ _A_ s _K_?"

"We are going to a different playground for a while"

As if to answer, Orianna winded the key on her back. The Ball emitted a few sounds. He was getting a grasp on how to roughly interpret the sounds it emitted, and though he wasn't sure, it seemed like the Ball was fine with that too.

* * *

A couple of days later, at dawn. Thresh and Orianna were in front of Ahri's house, staring at the... ship. There was a relatively large ship parked there, its hull modified to allow it to land on the ground rather than only on water. Land, since that was a flying ship. It had two large airscrews where the sails were supposed to be, and there were two hextech propellers on each side. It looked like a ship of Bilgewater customized at Piltover. Thresh wondered exactly how much money Ahri gained from being a pop star. Granted, the ship was overall small, most likely meant to host no more than about ten people, but still...

Then he heard something. He turned to the house. Ahri had just came out, followed by Tibbers. The poor dire bear -his flames currently extinguished- was carrying five luggages. Annie was on its back, together with a... was that a voidling? Why was a voidling there? When the little girl saw Thresh she energetically waved her hands at him, at which he replied with a somewhat lazy gesture. He liked Annie. She was growing into a fine sadist, cruel enough to burn people for no other reason than finding them prettier when alight, and she was crazy enough to consider him funny, but right now he had other thoughts on his mind. He noticed that Ahri's arm was wrapped in bandages, just like part of her forehead and her right eye and cheek. He took delight in that.

"WhO A _rE_ _tHE_ y?" Orianna asked.

"Traveling companions I would say. We are not going to toy with them, Orianna. It would be too much of an hassle. And they are better off alive than dead, for us"

 _For now, at least_ he thought as he kept looking at Ahri's hidden eye.

"... maybe you can get along with the little girl" he said then, and in response both Orianna and the Ball fixed their gazes on Annie.

Ahri told Annie to bring the luggages on the ship -there was a large door leading directly inside, rather than a stair to get to the deck- and walked up to Thresh and Orianna, her gaze locked on the mechanical girl.

"I must say, this is surprising"

"As much as you owning something like that" Thresh said as he pointed to the ship.

"I had money to spend" she said as she offered Orianna her hand "I'm Ahri"

Orianna, in reponse, looked at her fingers for a few moments, as if she was trying to remember whas she was supposed to do, then shook it, with a far too mechanical movement.

" _I_ Am _O_ rI _aN_ _nA_. T _hI_ _s_ iS _tH_ e BA _lL_ " she replied as she pointed to the ball with what was probably supposed to be an educate gesture but came off as an odd and unclear one.

"You know, she's warmer than you to the touch" Ahri told Thresh as she laughed.

"Orianna, wait for me on the ship"

She kept staring at Ahri for a few moments, then nodded and walked inside, followed by the Ball, which had its eye fixed on Ahri.

"Where did you find her? And what actually is she?" she asked.

"She is my current pastime. She was gathering dust in Piltover. I would greatly appreciate it if you do not interact too much with her. I am still trying to figure her out, and I do not know exactly how impressionable she is. The last thing I want to see is her starting to imitate you"

Ahri laughed. A bit too loudly, thought Thresh.

"What does that even mean?" she asked.

"I thought you said Nami was coming too" he said, ignoring her question.

"She's already inside"

"How did you convince her? I mean, you kind of forced yourself on her not too long ago. The fact that I had to take part in that only makes it worse"

"Oh, don't think too much about that" she replied, her eyes turning purple for a brief moment as she smiled. A rather eloquent reply.

"Alright, I do not really care. More importantly, Ahri. Why is a voidling with Annie?"

"Oh, that. It was with the dinner invitation. A sort of gift, and since I knew Annie was in Ionia I thought about letting her have it. She seems to like it"

That was when Thresh realized something. There was one question he hadn't asked her. At first he thought it didn't matter much, but now he had an horrible foreboding.

"... Ahri, who is it that invited you for dinner?"

"Oh, didn't I tell you?" she replied as she headed to the ship "We're going to Cho'Gath's summer estate"

"... as if this journey would not have been weird enough going to the house of a normal person... wait, Cho'Gath owns an estate? And how do you two know each other?" he asked as he followed Ahri.

"Come on, Thresh. He is a wealthy gentleman and I am a wealthy singer. You can figure it out by yourself"

 _I probably would_ he thought _if we were talking about a normal wealthy gentleman and a normal wealthy singer. ... wait, gentleman?_

Wondering just what he had gotten himself into, Thresh stepped inside the ship.

* * *

 **First chapter out.**

 **Thank you for reading.**


	2. A Name

**A Name**

The ship was divided into three areas. The smallest one, in the lower back, was where the engines were located. Almost all the space left was taken by the rooms of the passengers, seven in total plus two bathrooms, a kitchen and a pantry accessible only through the former. Lastly, directly on the deck was a somewhat small cabin which was the equivalent of the driver's seat. The inside of the ship either wasn't made of wood or had been completely covered with something else, somewhat resembling steel. The hallways were a bit too small for Tibbers, who had reverted -or had been forced to by Annie- to his smaller form, the plush toy.

 _Not really my style, but not too bad either_ thought Thresh _not that it matters_.

Ahri told him which rooms were free before walking upstairs. He picked one, walked to the door and openend it. Using his right hand was a bit uncomfortable given its state, but he shrugged that off. The room was a bit larger than he had expected. Not that he cared. He wasn't even really going to use it after all. There was a small window -though calling it porthole would have probably been more appropiate- covered by a curtain. He walked around a bit, more to kill some time than for real curiosity, before turning back to the door. There, Orianna was standing.

After a silence which lasted a bit too long, he spoke.

"... need something?"

"T _h_ E _Y_ Lo _ok_ _s_ O _fT_ " Orianna replied "W _h_ Y _A_ rE T _h_ e _Y_ n _Ot_ To _Y_ S?".

He was... overall glad she had asked him that. It meant the short reply he had given her earlier didn't satisfy her, which was a good thing. Moreover, the fact that she came to him instead of ignoring what he had said was a good sign.

"There is a difference between soft things and weak things. You need to learn to pick your toys, Orianna, or in the worst case you will end up as the one being toyed with"

"... C _An_ t _H_ E _y_ b _Re_ A _K_ u _s_?"

"It is possible, yes. Not strictly likely, but possible. An assassination could work, but not in this situation. And, as I have told you before, being soft and being a toy are different things. Some people are better off alive than dead"

Orianna turned to the Ball, and the two apparently had a short chat.

"W _E_... u _Nd_ ER _st_ aN _d_. W _e_ T _hI_ n _k_ _wE_ uNd _E_ R _st_ A _nD_ "

"Good"

After a few moments, Thresh walked out. Through the wall since Orianna didn't seem intentioned to move from the door either. Since he didn't really feel like talking with Annie, he walked upstairs and to the deck. And realized they had already taken off. The ship was surprisingly silent. The wind made the chains he was wearing cling.

"Quite the breeze" commented Ahri from behind.

He turned around. Her hair was flailing in the wind. The sound of the airscrews was audible from there, as well as the light buzzing of the propellers, though they were all less noisy than he had expected. They were higher from the ground than he had thought, and still rising.

"Do they hurt?" he asked, pointing to the bandages.

"Oh, not as much as you'd like them to"

"Of course" he replied "Does this thing have a pilot?"

"Kind of, but it's on autopilot mode at the moment. It's... extremely basic, but we can travel pretty much in a straight line, and it's not like we can crash into someone else while we're not looking"

"Basically if we plummet it is your fault"

"Basically"

* * *

At the same time, below them. Orianna was staring down at Annie, who was returning the gaze. The voidling, crouched on her back with his head pocking out next to hers, was looking at Orianna too. The Ball was silent. Tibbers was... well, he was a stuffed toy at the moment. He couldn't make any noise, and while he could actually move, it was far easier for him not to.

"Hi!" the child said then, after what any normal person would have considered an awkwardly long silence for any normal person.

"H _eL_ L _o_ "

"I'm Annie! This one here is Tibbers" she said as she raised the teddy bear in front of her "And this one is... well, he doesn't have a name yet" she told Orianna as she pointed to the voidling.

"I aM _O_ R _iA_ nNa. Th _I_ s iS _tHE_ B _a_ L _l_ "

Annie then raised an arm and... poked her hand through Orianna, between her two halves. Apparently she was unfazed by the mechanical girl's unsettling voice.

"Ooohhh, there's really nothing here. How do you do it?"

Unsure about what that meant, Orianna bent her head to the side. Though she bent it too much, to the point that a normal human's neck would have broken. As she did so, she casually winded the key on her back. Annie looked at all of that amazed.

"Woah, that's cool!"

" _Yo_ U A _R_ e n _oT_ s _C_ a _Re_ d?" Orianna asked with a vague int of curiosity within the meccanical tones of her voice, the child's reaction different from that of every person -alive person- she had met.

"Why should I?"

"Yo _U A_ r _E_ _a_ Wei _Rd_ hU _M_ a _n_ "

"Yeah, I'm constantly told that..." she pouted.

At that, Orianna kneeled down and placed two fingers on Annie's chest, over her heart, and stood like that for a few seconds. The child looked at her, curious.

" _Y_ oU h _Av_ e _A_ _g_ oO _D_ tI _c_ Ki _nG_ " she said.

Annie then placed her left ear against Orianna's chest, commenting on how cold she was. She also said that Thresh was a bit colder.

"Yours is nice too!" she said then, not really sure about what that meant.

The Ball floated down in front of Annie and started looking at her with its eye. Until the child took it and shook it as if it was an hand. The Ball immediatly floated away, and Orianna petted it a bit as if to calm it -it did seem confused by Annie's act- as the little child laughed.

Then, one of the doors opened. Nami came out, on top of a small wave, and turned to Annie and Orianna.

"Where is Ahri?" she asked.

"Mh? I think she's upstairs..." replied the child as she pointed to the way up.

* * *

Ahri was standing in the middle of the deck, strolling around enjoying the wind, her tails moving calmly behind her. As for Thresh, he was nowhere to be seen. She wasn't facing the stairs when Nami arrived, and so she didn't notice her. Or the giant bubble of water -cold water- which crashed down on her from behind. Ahri shrieked softly for the surprise as she fell down, the water splashing around after having hit the deck, her hears twitching. Almost nonchalantly, she took a look at her clothes -completely drenched- and swaied her tails around to get some water off her furr as she wringed her hair.

"Oh, hi. I thought you'd have been asleep for a while longer" she said as she laughed softly. And sneezed. Had she not been her closest friend, Ahri wouldn't have gotten away with something so simple as a bubble of cold water

"Do you have something to say before the next one?" Nami asked, clearly hangry, some water gatering near the tip of her scepter.

"You didn't seem so against it a few hours ago" Ahri replied, smiling. And then another bubble of freezing water crashed down on her.

"It's not the first time you drag me into your affairs, but this time..."

"Come on" Ahri interrupted her as she tried to get some water off herself "I thought -achoo!- that it would have been better to have you tag along since we're going to Shurima. And you know, it's a bit hot there"

Nami threw a third bubble at her, though this time she rolled out of its trajectory. Those weren't really attacksm Nami was just venting some of her pent-up frustration, but another bath like that and Ahri would have probably gotten something more than a cold. But since Nami most likely needed to let a bit more of hanger our, she could as well play along. A blue orb of light appeared in the palm of Ahri's hand.

"Well, I guess I should have expected this" she said.

"Then why did you do it in the first place?!"

"What friend would I be if I never kidnapped you?" she replied laughing.

Just as Nami was about to wave her scepter at Ahri, Annie came up.

"Hey, that seems fun!" she said upon seeing the two women... arguing. The child then raised her teddy bear as if to throw it. "Tib..."

"For your own sake, Annie, do not do that" said Thresh as he grabbed her arm from behind to stop her "The last thing I want is for you to blow up the whole ship"

"Oh! Ah... right. Sorry" she replied, realizing that having Tibbers came out the usual way would have most likely tore an huge hole in the flying vessel.

Orianna was watching in silence, her neck bent a bit too much to the side. As for Nami, the sudden arrival of the others apparently calmed down a bit, while Ahri made her orb disappear.

 _How can those two call themselves friends, I wonder... though it does seem rather one-sided_ thought Thresh.

"Since we're all here, what about eating something? And I'd rather go inside, I'm drenched and there's quite the breeze out here" Ahri proposed.

"I shall pass on the offer" said Thresh.

"Food!" Annie shouted as she dashed back inside. Taken by surprise by that sudden sprint, the voidling lost its grip on her and fell down.

Orianna followed the red-haired child, together with the Ball and the nameless purple pet. Seems like she was curious about the little girl.

"... so, what's going on exactly?" asked the marai as she looked at Thresh's burned arm, which made her consider Ahri's wounds under a different light. She had an at least vague idea of what happened between them, but nothing more than that.

"I have nothing to do with your involvement, minnow. Talk it out with the fox" Thresh said as he walked away.

Ahri headed to the stairs too, but Nami grabbed her arm when she walked next to her.

"Do you mind giving me a serious answer for once?"

"Alright, let me see... if things go wrong I'll find myself in a rather bad situation, so I decided to have my best friend tag along for possibly the last time. And since there is a little something we have yet to settle I thought it'd have been better to drag you into this. You know, to avoid leaving that pend-achoo!- did you really have to use freezing water?"

"What are you talking about? There's nothing we have to settle between us"

"Well, it's more of a curiosity of mine if you really want to now. Now -achoo!- do you mind..." she said as she pointed to the stairs.

Nami looked at her. Ahri was the type to constatly fool around with others, and she had the tendency to mess with others far beyond the line of common sense, but... the marai had a rather bad hunch this time. Even worse than that time she had walked in on her and Thresh right after one of their so called sessions. And that effectively ended with Ahri sexually abusing her. Nami looked at the sky. She couldn't help but wonder if the main reason they were on a flying ship was to make sure she'd not just leave and head back to Ionia.

* * *

"Hey, hey! Do you know any good names? Something that can fit him" Annie asked Orianna as she held the voidling up in front of her.

They were sitting in the kitchen. Or rather, Annie was sitting. Orianna was standing, simply because she didn't know that she was supposed to take a seat.

"A _nA_ M _e_? _D_ iD _n_ ' _t_ HI _s_ F _at_ h _E_ r _G_ i _v_ E _h_ Im _A_ Na _mE_?"

"Well, I don't know... did he?" she asked to the small voidling, who replied with a neutral expression. Or rather, didn't reply at all.

"Voidlings aren't normally given a name" said Nami as she walked -swimmed?- inside "They're basically mass produced, and most of them don't make it to the third year of life, so voidborns don't bother with giving them one"

"Oohh, how do you know?" Annie asked "... and where did Thresh and Ahri go?"

"I learned a lot of things during my journey. For better or for worse. As for those two, Ahri went to her room to dry up and get a change of clothes. I don't know about Thresh" she said as she headed to the fridge -may whoever invented that thing be blessed-, took out a raw fish and enveloped it in hot water to warm it up. There were other ways to heat it up, but she liked it more that way.

Both Orianna and the Ball fixed their gazes on Nami, and upon noticing it the marai did the same. Annie left Tibbers and the voidling on the chair as she went to look for some snacks in the pantry.

"Who are you?"

"I _aM_ O _r_ iA _a_ n _Na_. Th _I_ S i _s_ T _h_ e _Ba_ L _L_ "

 _That's not what I meant._

"I'm Nami"

When Ahri walked in -she was wearing a spare of her usual clothes, and her fur was still a bit wet-, she found the child eating some biscuits, and Orianna and Nami still staring at each other. While the mechanical girl was still standing, the marai had taken a seat. Chairs weren't too comfortable for her, and she also had to turn them to the side when using them due to the dress piece she had on her tail, but it was still better than nothing. Usually.

"What did I miss?" she asked.

"These" Annie replied as she ate the last cookie.

"Nothing" Nami said. The fish had warmed up enough, and so she... bit it. Raw. She chewed a bit before swallowing, then took another bite.

Annie was staring, perplexed.

"Ehm... Nami... it's raw... doesn't it kinda... taste horrible?" the child asked.

"It would, to you" she replied.

Truth is, Nami didn't like most of the mainland's cuisine. Actually, it wasn't simply a matter of tastes, as she had trouble digesting a large part of human's food, and eating too much would make her sick. She almost died because of food poisoning once, during her first month on the mainland, which is when she found out her organism's digestive system, and not only her taste buds, wasn't too compatible with the surface's dishes.

"So you don't cook anything?"

"I used to, but marai's cuisine can't be done outside of the ocean" she replied as she licked some blood from her cheek.

Orianna walked up to Nami and tried to place an hand on her chest, but the marai grabbed her wrist to stop her. At that, the mechanical girl bent her head, as if to ask why.

"Aren't you getting a bit too familiar?"

" _T_ o _O_ _f_ A _mi_ L _I_ a _R_?"

The Ball emitted a few sharp sounds, and Orianna turned to it.

" _N_ o, B _aL_ l. B _e_ A _G_ o _O_ D _B_ A _ll_ "

"So, how long will it take to reach the estate?" Nami asked.

"Around three days, I think" Ahri replied.

"Alright. Call me when we get there"

After saying that, Nami finished eating her fish and left. After less than a couple of minutes, Orianna walked away as well, without saying a word.

"She's a bit creepy, isn't she?" commented Ahri as she sat down close to Annie and placed on the table another jar of cookies, to which the child gladly helped herself.

"Mom and dad work with muuuch scarier things" she replied.

"Don't take it the wrong way Annie, but I really don't know if I want to know what exactly your parents work with"

So, Thresh was somewhere on the ship doing who knew what. Orianna... well, she didn't really seem sociable. And Nami had basically announced she'd shut herself in her room until their arrival at Shurima. She and Thresh were on bad terms to say the least, and by the look of it it was going to be the same with Orianna, so she most likely wanted to avoid meeting them.

"I'm afraid the journey to the estate will be extremely boring" Ahri said.

Then, the voidling grabbed a biscuit -or rather, he stabbed it- and tried to eat it, but Tibbers gave him a not-so-mighty slap which made him fell down. The voidling got back on its legs and looked around, confused as to what it is that hit him.

"Tibbers, don't bully him"

The teddy bear replied by simply hugging Annie. Ahri giggled at that. Then Annie grabbed the voidling and brought it up enough to look at it directly in the eyes.

"That's it! I'll call you Thulhu!"

The voidling apparently took that news greatly, as it seemed really happy.

"That's... one weird name. How did you come up with it?" asked Ahri.

"I've heard mom and dad saying something similar to it every now and then" she replied casually as she handed the small voidling a cookie.

 _I'm not sure why, but now I absolutely don't want to know what your parents's "works" actually is._

* * *

 **A small note, Annie's surname "Hastur" is the name of a Great Old Ones of the Cthulhu mythos, in case someone didn't know and thought the Chtulhu reference to be completely out of the blue.**

 **Next chapter will most likely skip to their arrival at the estate rather than focus on the journey on the ship.**

 **Thank you for reading.**


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